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Fun linguistics make Strip Jack more compelling
Book Review
By Derryll White
Rankin, Ian (1992). Strip Jack.
“What happens to reason when you chain it to a wall?” – John Rebus
Ian Rankin lists alcohol researcher as one of his former jobs, a designation I would aspire to especially if living in Scotland near a Jameson still. Unquestionably, however, he chose the correct path by abandoning everything and becoming an exceptional, unrelenting storyteller and writer.
Gregor Jack is a Scottish MP who, early in this story, got caught up in a raid on a brothel. So the reader thinks, ‘Christ, there are already a thousand novels on the boorish morals, or lack thereof, of MPs.’ But that is not how things proceed. The reader should trust Rankin to be more inventive, because he always is and therefore sells millions of books.
Rankin talks about personal history in a manner foreign to myself. His characters went to school together as youngsters, and stayed in touch, stayed close. Don’t know if that is the Scottish/British experience but it certainly is foreign to me, and to most of the Canadians I know. We all scattered across this vast country, losing ties and youthful commitments. Reading the outcome of Gregor Jack’s (Strip Jack) life, perhaps that is for the best.
The reader has to acclimatize to the Scottish dialect. Peching means out of breath while smirr means rain – so a snell wind, occasional smirr should be understood as ‘a piercingly cold wind with occasional rain.’ It is fun to pick up the linguistic differences and it makes the novel even more compelling.
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Excerpts from the novel:
POLICEMEN – Rebus knew more divorced and separated policemen (himself included) than happily married ones. It wasn’t just the hours worked, it was the way police work itself gnawed into you like a worm, burrowing deep. Eating away from the inside. As protection against the worm, you wore armour plating – more of it, perhaps, than was necessary. And that armour set you apart from friends and family, from the ‘civilians’….
IMAGE – He reminded Rebus of Gregor Jack. That enthusiasm and energy, that public image. It used to be the sort of stuff Rebus associated with American presidential campaigns; now it was everywhere. Even in the asylums. The lunatics hadn’t taken over; the image-men had.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
